The School of Further Education (SFE, later known as the Scottish School of Further Education) was established at Jordanhill College of Education, Glasgow, in 1966. It was the exclusive, national provider of basic, in-service training for further education teachers, leading to the award of a Teaching Qualification (Further Education) and entitlement to registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. A purpose-built facility for the SFE was opened on the Jordanhill campus in 1973, incorporating a library, offices and audio-visual support as well as an interconnecting multi-storey hostel to accommodate students during the residential blocks of their course.
The Teaching Qualification (Further Education) course, which initially had three intakes each year, was of the ’sandwich’ type, consisting of two 8-week (later 10-week) blocks of full-time attendance at the SFE and two terms of supervised teaching practice in the trainee teachers’ own further education colleges in between. The course fees and subsistence costs were covered by the students’ employers. In 1986, the TQ(FE) course was revised and extended over five consecutive terms, each term incorporating a period of full-time attendance at the SPE. The revised course, which had two intakes per year, now included 276 hours of distance teaching/learning activities and 24 hours of tutorial visits to students at their place of employment. In 1994, the course was rewritten in terms of competencies and restructured for a modular pattern of delivery.
From session 1973-1974, the SPE also offered basic training courses for teachers of nursing, midwifery and other professions supplementary to medicine, and ran short courses and conferences to meet specific needs among further education staff. In 1988, with the agreement of the Scottish Education Department, the Governors of Jordanhill College changed the SPE’s name to the Scottish School of Further Education (SSPE).
In 1989, the SSPE introduced a flexible programme of modular, credit-bearing courses for continuing staff development in further education, leading to the award of certificates, diplomas and degrees in ‘Post School Education Studies.’ The Curriculum Advice and Support Team (CAST), set up at Jordanhill College of Education in 1985, was assimilated into the SSFE in 1987.
In 1993, Jordanhill College merged with the University of Strathclyde to become Strathclyde’s Faculty of Education. The Jordanhill campus was retained by the University, and the SSPE remained there as a distinct department of the Faculty of Education for the next ten years. In 2003, a restructuring of the Faculty of Education into five large departments saw the SSPE subsumed into the new Department of Educational and Professional Studies with effect from 1 August that year.
The Directors of the SFE/SSFE were William M. T. Mason (1966-1970), Dennis R. Griffiths (1970-1972), James Stark (1972-1983), Stuart M. Niven (1983-1997), David Taylor (1997- 1999), Ian J. Finlay (Head of Department, 1999-2001) and Anne E. Nicolson (Acting Head of Department, 2001-2002).